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Disappointed in the media situation so far (No CD player in Model S)

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Guys -

Cashoverass has 35,000 songs in his library which is over 160gb so he can't load it on an iPhone and a large enough flash drive would be expensive....
...

I have my partners 42,000 song library on there and it plays perfectly and is only using about 205gb with plenty of space to load ore music....
I sometimes wonder about people w/such a large music library. How much of the library goes unplayed? Looking at iTunes, there are over 3000 items (mostly songs) in the music portion of my iTunes library. It'd take 8.5 days (presuming they calculate that based upon 24 hours) to listen to it all and it totals only 16.7 gigs.

I have a smart playlist for songs that I haven't played in the last 5 months (I've filtered out audiobooks, podcasts, certain genres that would be actually audiobooks, etc.) and that comes out to 2589 items (songs), that would take 7.4 days to play.

My 80 gig iPod Classic is still more than enough for all my music storage needs.
 
I sometimes wonder about people w/such a large music library. How much of the library goes unplayed? Looking at iTunes, there are over 3000 items (mostly songs) in the music portion of my iTunes library. It'd take 8.5 days (presuming they calculate that based upon 24 hours) to listen to it all and it totals only 16.7 gigs.

I have a smart playlist for songs that I haven't played in the last 5 months (I've filtered out audiobooks, podcasts, certain genres that would be actually audiobooks, etc.) and that comes out to 2589 items (songs), that would take 7.4 days to play.

My 80 gig iPod Classic is still more than enough for all my music storage needs.

Library collected over many years with many different interests over that time. Plus pulled old vinyl into digital format because I hate buying music again in a different format. Although the size of my collection doesn't compare to what Aaron described, when loaded in FLAC format it's about 80GB.

It's been 25 years since I've played a Black Sabbath song but I still have it in my library. Should I just purge? Perhaps, but storage is cheap so why not just leave it there? I have an old 250GB hard drive from my laptop that I've repurposed as my media storage in the S. Costs me nothing to do this so why not? There are songs I play once every two or three years and it's nice to have them available on demand (for example the acoustic version of "Drowned" that's on Secret Policeman's Ball with Pete Townshend's remarkable guitar playing)
 
cwerdna

My partners musical "mood" changes from week to week (many times day to day). He likes knowing that when he is in the mood to hear something, he has instant access to it whenever he likes without having to fish for a CD. We have a 4 zone Sonos system in the house and music gets played every day. I wanted to surprise him with having his entire music library available in the car for long trips (we do a 5 hour trip up to cape cod every summer) and look forward by this winter to be able to drive down to FL from NY using superchargers - being able to pull up any song as the mood arises....

Aaron

I sometimes wonder about people w/such a large music library. How much of the library goes unplayed? Looking at iTunes, there are over 3000 items (mostly songs) in the music portion of my iTunes library. It'd take 8.5 days (presuming they calculate that based upon 24 hours) to listen to it all and it totals only 16.7 gigs.

I have a smart playlist for songs that I haven't played in the last 5 months (I've filtered out audiobooks, podcasts, certain genres that would be actually audiobooks, etc.) and that comes out to 2589 items (songs), that would take 7.4 days to play.

My 80 gig iPod Classic is still more than enough for all my music storage needs.
 
^^^
I understand the the mood/tastes changing, but there are plenty of songs that I've just skipped and never bothered listening in their entirety even twice, some never. Most of them tend to be freebies from Amazon or iTunes or part of compilation that I bought via a promo deal. A few are accidentally "played" if my iPod is inadvertently left playing (to nothing) for many hours.

I do sometimes mark songs as 1 star and sometimes go and delete those, esp. if they cost me nothing to buy.

When I rip my own CDs, for most of them, I actually at least sample the beginning of each and only rip songs that I find at least ok. Ones that I'd skip each time don't get ripped.

I'd be very curious to see what a smart playlist for songs that haven't been played in the last 6 months, year or 2 years looks like. You might be amazed by how many are there and how much listening time is required to get thru them.
 
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I don't mean to be a jerk, but we can laugh about this now, right? I mean, you bought the most advance car out there right now and you didn't know or bother to check what it had in it? hahahaha.

I'm glad you found a solution though. :)
 
Hi Ggies, I'm not ready to laugh yet. I'm still disappointed. In certain aspects, yes, this car is definitely the most advanced car but at $70k-$110k, this one particular aspect is still very disappointing.

You guys can write-off CDs if you want but physical media isn't going away any time soon. Between CDs, Dvd's, blurays, dvid-audio, super audio cd, etc. etc. there is still very much a demand for a media slot. you can laugh at me for not realizing the car didn't have a CD player, but honestly, this must be the only car on the market without one. Seriously. The cheapest kia to the most expensive luxury car and everything in between come with at least a single cd slot. Every other car in this price bracket would have a 6 dish changer with ripping functionality.

I wouldn't mind if the ipod functionality worked or they unlocked the way for us to store Mp3's right on the hard drive of the car but as of now, i'm sick of Slacker radio and google play via bluetooth is only a temporary solution.

And can you guys imagine what a DVD audio disc would sound like through this amazing stereo system?!
 
The cheapest kia to the most expensive luxury car and everything in between come with at least a single cd slot. Every other car in this price bracket would have a 6 dish changer with ripping functionality.
I think you're misunderstand something, or maybe people haven't expressed it well.

The cheapest kia also has exhaust. We don't want that. We consider it an improvement to not have it.

Similarly, some of us think it's an improvement not to have another set of moving parts in the form a CD player or DVD player.
 
Hi Ggies, I'm not ready to laugh yet. I'm still disappointed. In certain aspects, yes, this car is definitely the most advanced car but at $70k-$110k, this one particular aspect is still very disappointing.

You guys can write-off CDs if you want but physical media isn't going away any time soon. Between CDs, Dvd's, blurays, dvid-audio, super audio cd, etc. etc. there is still very much a demand for a media slot. you can laugh at me for not realizing the car didn't have a CD player, but honestly, this must be the only car on the market without one. Seriously. The cheapest kia to the most expensive luxury car and everything in between come with at least a single cd slot. Every other car in this price bracket would have a 6 dish changer with ripping functionality.

I wouldn't mind if the ipod functionality worked or they unlocked the way for us to store Mp3's right on the hard drive of the car but as of now, i'm sick of Slacker radio and google play via bluetooth is only a temporary solution.

And can you guys imagine what a DVD audio disc would sound like through this amazing stereo system?!

Did you get a USB thumb drive? I bought a 32GB one for $10 and stores a few thousand songs. I realize that isn't all 40,000 songs you have but I'd imagine carrying the CDs that correspond to the 40,000 songs would take up the entire frunk.

Honestly I'm happy it doesn't have a CD player, just something that can break. I still buy CDs as a physical backup and so I can rip them at the quality I want (Apple Lossless now which doesn't play on the Model S but higher rate AAC does and FLAC does). I can also switch between thousands of songs just by touching the 17" screen. I think you'd agree that is much easier than digging out a CD while driving from the case and changing it out.

Tesla is just ahead of the curve with CD players (like in so many other areas). Apple ditched the floppy drive about 5 years before everyone else did as an example of a company ditching an old technology when they thought it was right but the rest of the industry still thought people wanted it (some still did). Since you said you already had a large number of your songs in mp3 format I would think dragging them onto a USB drive wouldn't be too difficult.

Here's a 64GB one for $40 (128GB is over $80).
Amazon.com: SanDisk Cruzer 64 GB USB Flash Drive (SDCZ36-064G-AFFP): Electronics
Amazon.com: SanDisk Cruzer Glide 128 GB USB Flash Drive SDCZ60-128G-B35: Computers Accessories

Looks like 256GB drives are avaliable but are $270 and don't know if they work with the Model S. The drive in the Model S should be activated this year sometime but until then a 64GB USB drive is a very cheap way to get a few thousand songs on a drive. Much easier than CDs I would think.
 
Thanks DSM. I have a 500gig external harddrive that I thought would work. It doesn't seem to be loading up and I was told the single usb port in the car might not provide enough amperage?? I bought a y adapter that will let me use both USB ports to provide power into the harddrive. I have no idea if this will work but I'll try it out. If that doesn't work, I'll buy the slim harddrive that Aaron recommended and confirmed powers up and runs on the Tesla S.
 
The USB ports on the Model S are low power.... I specifically bought this because it was said that it works on low power and does work perfectly in the car.
A bargain at $52!!!!

Aaron

Thanks DSM. I have a 500gig external harddrive that I thought would work. It doesn't seem to be loading up and I was told the single usb port in the car might not provide enough amperage?? I bought a y adapter that will let me use both USB ports to provide power into the harddrive. I have no idea if this will work but I'll try it out. If that doesn't work, I'll buy the slim harddrive that Aaron recommended and confirmed powers up and runs on the Tesla S.
 
@Cashoverass
I now understand what you intended, but they way you said it was inaccurate and thus confusing. You said the car has 1 port, not that the car has two ports that you've "merged" into a single port experience via an adapter. For example, I could say "my car has 5 ports" because I have a 1:4 port multiplier on one of the car-provided USB ports; that would be inaccurate and confusing as well. Anyway, I wasn't meaning to nitpick. Let's move along. :)
 
Every other car in this price bracket would have a 6 dish changer with ripping functionality.

Yes, and I'd be totally pissed about the lack of an ability to access any of my music, since I don't have any CDs. I've been so totally sick of having to hook up an iPod with an audio cable and scroll through its tiny display to select what I want. The Model S has a far superior music system over any other car I've looked at. I love the ability to quickly select any artist I want on a large touchscreen (although the interface could definitely be improved. I'd love to have favorite albums to quickly select the way you can have favorite radio stations.)
 
Also, ripping music into each and every car -- some of us have more than one car for various reasons -- is a royal pain. Some track data isn't recognized, and you have to edit letter by letter on the car's stupid tiny screen... if the car allows editing at all. I've dealt with Honda, BMW, and others: CD's are not the ideal way to handle audio.

For years now, my preferred solution has been to rip my CD's to my computer using a program called MediaMonkey. I rip the tracks to WAV format, which is uncompressed CD-quality audio and takes up roughly 40-50MB per song. Then, I simply have to set up sync profiles for each device, with each profile containing a set of filters to select music from the whole library and a specified file/audio format. For my Model S, I have a 128GB USB flash drive and the profile says to sync all songs rated 3 stars or higher in FLAC format with max compression. For the Honda, since I don't drive it that often, I use a 32GB flash drive and I select the same three-star songs but I convert to 256 Kbps MP3.

All I have to do is bring in the flash drive from whatever car it was in, and plug it into my computer. MediaMonkey recognizes the device, adds or deletes songs from it automatically... and every song gets converted from my standard WAV file to whatever audio format I selected for that flash drive. Works for iPods, Androids, flash drives, Sansa, anything. And I only have to store one copy of the song on my main computer's drives.
 
lack of CD player in Model S

The obvious reason for the farting noise is that your car is telling you its opinion of hip hop. Having a more sophisticated taste in music, I have not heard the farting noise.

Priceless. And coming from someone whose username is Beavis too :wink:

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...It seems like they could have done a better job optimizing for low-quality tracks, though. The high-quality ones wouldn't need any trickery to sound good; they just would. Perhaps better optimization could be added in a future software update.

Or they could have included a CD drive (that also plays SACD's) and optimized for that ;-)

- - - Updated - - -

I'm a sound engineer and I work IN a Sound Studio all day. (Haven't got a Tesla yet but it's in my plans) My fronts are Miller & Kreisel MPS-2510P mains and the sub is an MPS-5310. (look them up) I have metering on the source signals, and the room is appropriately damped for listening.

I just took a listen to "deadmau5 hr 8938 cephei" and "Kanye West I wonder" on Spotify to learn more about the problem. I can say both of those tracks made my subwoofer jump like a recruit whose pissed-off drill instructor just shouted "drop and give me fifty!!" LOL

Both tracks are authored to hold as much low-frequency bass as possible. It is critical that the clearest possible source material is used for these... lossy digital compression does not hold bass very well (or rather, bass that has other frequencies in it too). Also, both of those tracks are mastered at almost the top limit of the transport mechanism (16-bit digital audio). It's funny... you could deliver these tracks 6dB lower (one digital bit) and I don't think anyone would notice... or care.

It is difficult for a lossy compression algorithm to do its work when the music extends out to the outer limits of the transport, and also when there is so much bass along with the other frequencies. Put simply... distortion is added to the authored music.

On top of that, if ANY other complex digital processing is carried out by the car's systems... (Dolby what?) additional distortion will be added.

It's unfortunate that Tesla's Sound Studio package doesn't include a CD player! That would be a no-brainer. Lots of people interested in music still like to use CDs. Anyhow, using PCM tracks, or tracks compressed with a lossless algorithm is one of the only ways you can help this process.

In short, Tesla's built-in processing might be doing something to ruin the signal.

Firstly, I would recommend generally NOT turning up the bass or treble up or down on music. Car designers typically maximise the capabilities of their amplifiers, speaker cones, crossovers and vehicle acoustics based on level settings. They use a variety of different music for testing. As soon as you tinker with the EQ you are risking the chance of not receiving the maximum benefit of the Tesla designers' work. Turning up the bass on those two tracks = pointless. They're loaded with enough bass out of the factory, so to speak, and there's no way to get them more bassy than they are. Keep it at neutral... the bass and treble controls are there to EQUALIZE program material that started out inadequate in some way.

Secondly, if there is anything else going on like a surround mode, turn it off. Keep it as pure as you can get it.

Thirdly... play source material that has no lossy compression. A CD player would be perfect for this... but if you can use FLAC, Apple Lossless, Windows Media Lossless or even just PCM WAV files, do that.

In closing, it doesn't matter what car you're in... using lossy-compressed versions of those tracks and turning up the bass setting and then the volume of the amplifier... is just plain asking for trouble.

Hope I didn't sound preachy or verbose.

+1 on every account, especially the missing CD player. That omission is a big miss by Tesla imho.
 
With everything being digital these days many would argue that not having a CD player isn't a huge loss although I understand why many would want it. If you have a ton of CDs (which I do) but haven't converted them to mp3, AAC or FLAC then CD support would make things easier. The lack of CD support might just be the push to convert CDs to AAC or FLAC then which enables you to put thousands of songs on a USB thumb drive and not have to switch CDs while driving. They do need to support Apple Lossless on top of FLAC though and improve the audio interface and enable the on-board storage.